The Falling
by Mizudara
Summary: She wakes up in a cell, has it been three years already? The dark abyss of her mind has not sat well with her, she needs to get out! she needs to get out and find her family, then find the bastard that locked her away, its what he would have wanted, isn't it?
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

The sunlight crept through the bars above her, illuminating the far side of her cell. The reinforced door reflected no light, leaving her in the same darkness she had felt for so many years. The room was so familiar now, nine feet by nine feet on all sides with the only escape route being the hatch above her; she had given up trying to reach it a long time ago.

Clutching her knees to her chest, she sighed, looking up at the walls in the dim illumination of the morning. The scratches she had originally started making to mark her time had tapered off a long time ago. What had been the point anyway?

They announced the date every morning over the loud speaker. She assumed that's what you were supposed to hear in prison...every day...every agonizing, unforgiving perpetual day. She cracked the smallest smile; pointless and dumb yes, but then again, she'd never been the smartest of her siblings in retrospect, and she wasn't certainly going to change now. Her small laugh permeated the cell.

She wondered what they were all up to, her family. Lori and Bobby probably got married a long time ago at this point. Lisa was probably creating some crazy experiment in her spare time like she always did, nearly leveling the house in explosive intensity. She could imagine Lana probably dragging home a wolverine and begging to keep it, And Lincoln, he must be playi...…

"...oh...right," she weakly huffed out. The smile dissipated as she remembered.

Lincoln was gone.

In place of her scraped calendar of misery she had begun scraping a memorial instead, but what that memorial was to wasn't clear in her mind. A memorial to him perhaps? To what she had lost? To the visage of that young man? This boy? Before it had shattered? She didn't know, she didn't want to know really…maybe she thought...maybe...she should just finish herself, break a shard out of her metal framed bed and jam it into her throat. Join the people she'd lost and be done with all this bullshit. "I've dealt with this for so long...why? I...I want to fuckin die...I really do...but I can't kill myself...WHY CAN'T I FUCKING KILL MYSELF," she roared at herself internally as she grabbed her temple with a twisted, sad smile.

"Weeeeelllllll good morning prisoners," the overly cheery sound of the warden's voice said as it nauseatingly permeated the dusty, dead and parched acoustics of this god-forsaken prison.

"Ah do hope y'all're doin' well, rehabilitating yourselves so tha' you may one day face the world with open arms once more as productive members of our fine society" She groaned as she put her face in her palms.

"Jesus fucking christ...does this CUNT ever quit?" the tormented young woman complained with her warped, twisted smile still planted on her face.

"Today's date is the third of March, in the two thousand and twentieth year of our good lord Jesus Christ."

She froze, feeling whatever vestige of a soul or anything comparable to life evaporate into godless dust.

"That date…has it really been th-three years? Three years to the day since he…" she stuttered, now feeling her soul crush to nothing morally salvageable. Tears filled her eyes as she swallowed that horrific but blunt fact of reality, as cruel as it was.

"I…have to get out of here" she assured herself, "...I...I have to get out…I have to...NO...NO! I NEED TO GET OUT! I WANT REVENGE... for Lincoln...to find my family... and to kill the sick son of a bitch that put me here...that mutherfucker...I PROMISE, BEFORE I DIE, YOU'RE GONNA GO DOWN WITH ME! I'M GOING TO TEAR YOU APART LIMB FROM LIMB WHILE WE BOTH DESCENT TO HELL! I WILL SHRED YOUR FUCKING CORRUPT SHITTY SOUL TO PIECES AND WATCH THE LIFE LEAVE YOUR EYES BEFORE I FEED YOU TO THE DOGS!"

She sighed like her gloomy sister in exact detail; their time together now seemed so much more precious, even if they had such polar opposite personalities and interests, her gloomy younger sister into the gothic and macabre, herself always into sports.

"...sigh...every time...it's the one thing I feel that makes me think my family is still with me...that...and the little things about them I miss...so...so much...Lucy...Lincoln," she tapered off as she felt her eyes watering up.

She wiped them off before tears could descend downwards, and swallowed that bubbling lamentful lump that trying to force its way out.

"Not today...not now...I wanna ruminate...just think...think...and see...ruminate..."

As she allowed her mind to gravitate towards this crude form of meditation, she glared up at the grate above her.

"Those fuckers; they never bothered to lock it, do they…why bother anyways when I'm nine feet below it?"

She looked up at the grates, momentarily grinning. Then on a rather familiar impulse, probably the millionth time she tried from a number of failed attempts, suddenly y ran to the wall and began trying to push herself off in a run, up along the wall to make a jump for the grate.

And like the many desperate times before, succeeded to only to fall crashing down to the ground on her side. She yelped in momentary pain as her body collided with the hard, cold, gritty ground below her.

"Second time is the charm" she told herself, instead trying to climb up using her bed as a ramp. She made her way to prep her jump as best as she could physically do at the grate opening again.

"Come on... come on...it's around mealtime…yes! This is the moment ...freedom...FREEDOME!" she yelled as she reached out her left arm to grab it.

She jumped.

"I got…OH FUCK!"

She was falling…she forgot; her arm was still missing like it had been for three years.

"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT! HOW STUPID COULD I BE!?"

She was falling, just like all those years ago, the memory played faintly in her brain…that horrid shock of realising her arm was gone, the desperation of attempting to hold him with her remaining arm in a feeble and doomed attempt to save him, and the animalistic raw pain in her throat from screaming.

As she collided with the ground, the air escaped her lungs in the form of an anguished scream, her ribs colliding with the ground. As she laid there barely conscious, the sounds of the guards above her indicated that a ladder was being lowered into her cell. For some reason, those creaking sounds...they made her recall the day she lost everything.

All of it.

All in one forsaken, soul-destroying motion…in this moment she wanted to die, but that feeling; that feeling of powerlessness, of incalculable moral annihilation...she had to hold it back. She needed to get out, she needed to see them again, and she needed to kill the bastard that put her here.

"Prisoner#327? PRISONER#327?" The guard asked frantically his fingers pressing against her neck checking for a pulse. She didn't stir, what could she do anyway? She had these grandiose dreams of vengeance, but what could she do? Her old life was a faded memory, those dreams of seeing her family again, of avenging her brother began to sink back into the clouded miasma of her mind

"Lynn! Ms. Loud can you hear me? Lynn!"

Lynn, the word brought her back slightly…there was something she hadn't heard in a long time…the name stirred memories, good and bad alike. Like adding kindling to a dying fire, her resolve began to reawaken.

Lynn, that was her name…

As the guard laid her on the Prison Nurse's table he failed to notice her expression change to a faint smile slowly form on her weak frame, her life…her past…the people she loved, she was Lynn Marie Loud and she would see her family again or she would die trying.


	2. Chapter 1 - Bitter Taste of Future Lost

Luna stood over the lonesome bridge, desolate of any cross traffic or signs; it was bare and cold. She had her cell phone in her hand, looking at it sparingly while focusing most of her mind out over the cold spring morning, her frozen breath disappearing. The morning sticky fusion of factory smoke and morning fog in the atmosphere somehow brought her some feeling of nostalgia.

"Dude...this place has gone to some serious shit..."

Luna reflected on last little bastion of jobs that were available in the sickly town she had called home for her whole life...especially the last, sad few years leading up to her current eighteen years of life. The phone shook in her right hand, her left holding a crumpled piece of tear-stained paper in her jacket pocket.

Luna shook her head as tears once again filled her eyes...again.

"Dude...this is weak...THIS IS SO FUCKING WEAK! Why? Why man?" Luna choked out in a morbid sob on the bridge railing.

She could delay it; she didn't have to tell her just yet.

The phone began to ring... it was her.

Time seemed to stand still as she looked at the Caller ID.

"Fuck...I...I guess this is it," Luna said weakly in a slight whimper.

"I...I have to tell her."

"H-hey Sam…" Luna said with a forced, uneasy smile, as if Sam was looking straight at her, able to see right past her feeble façade.

"At least I don't have you staring me down when I do this Sam...I'm sorry...this rocker's a fuckin coward." She shivered as the guilt

"Hey Babe" said the cheerful voice from the other end of the line, "Sorry to call you so early but I have great news and needed to tell you! I just got my acceptance letter to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music."

Her voice radiated that same kind and loving spirit that made Luna fall in love with all those years ago.

"I've yet to hear back from Julliard or Berklee, but I'm so happy because we can move in together in the dorms, right? I remember you said you were gonna open your letter with your family after you got it on Monday."

Luna's heart sank, her hand squeezing around the paper.

She had to tell her.

Her lip quivered as Sam stayed silent for a moment. Luna bitterly scrunched her face in lament as tears streamed like rivers down her slightly sunken in freckled cheeks.

"I'm sorry Sam," Luna quietly groaned into her hand as she chocked on another delayed sob.

"You okay Lu?" the slightly worried voice on the other end of the line asked.

"Sam I…Sam, I'm so happy for you, I know Oberlin was one of your top choices" Luna said with an extremely uncomfortable, put on smile as more tears rolled down her freckled cheeks.

Sam's voice turned from a mild worry to full blown concern.

"Lu, we've been dating for nearly three years…what's up hon? You can tell me."

That tone...that voice...Luna couldn't take it. It melted her faux tough, put-on façade.

She broke down hard, sobbing uncontrollably into the bridge railing, then falling to her knees on the bridge, her jean's soaking through to her skin as her suppressed emotions ran free like a mega-tsunami crashing against the shore.

"I didn't get accepted Sam! Not to Oberlin! Not to Julliard! not to the fucking Manhattan School of Music! Rejection letter after rejection letter!"

Luna's eyes opened in sudden shock. She hadn't wanted to have an outburst like this at all towards Sam, but she couldn't control her anguish and forlorn soul.

"S-Sam, I'm sorry I…" she began to cry, "Sam...I...I-".

"Luna, please! It's... it's okay…I'll stay with you, I don't need t-" Luna cut her off.

"Please Sammy, don't give up on your own future for me," she choked out.

"Your clarinet skills are wicked, you deserve to go follow your dreams…who knows? Maybe we can rent an apartment together or something?" Luna suggested.

She didn't know if she was trying to cheer Sam or herself up after that. It felt overly forced, contrived...emotionally like a wrecking ball on her soul, and the wrecking ball felt like it was heading straight back at her. Something worse in the works heading towards her; Luna could feel this pit, even worse than the rejections for some reason.

The silence hung deathly in the air for several moments. The only sound was the gentle trickling of the partly turbulent river water under the bridge.

"Hey Luna?" Sam inquired softly, "Wanna watch a movie later, just get our minds off all of it? Just, ya know give a big, cuck-sized bugger-off to the man? For one night and hang?"

Luna smiled slightly, the tiniest of happy shiver ran down her spine in the cold morning air.

"Okay Luv. That sounds sublime...and rad dude," Luna said, putting on a British accent.

"We going to the pictures or yours mate?" Sam said, snickering through the phoneline as she heard the attempted cockney accent.

"You check what's on and get back to me okay? I've gotta get ready…catch you at school, kay?" Luna asked with a still mixed, but growing smile.

"Sam...ya really are the light of my life…so full of energy and life, always able to make me smile just like L...oh...the bloody day..." Luna thought in a morose, tapering thought.

She felt her heart sink again.

"Has it already been three years? It all happened so fucking suddenly. Dude...life sucks...thank god for Sam..."

She had seen the two of them grow up, and then, on day...they were gone.

Everything with the family had gone to hell after that.

Everything with the family had gone to hell after that. They hadn't realised at the time just how much they had needed their siblings. The loss in and of itself was tragic, feeling like two large chunks of their lives had been irreparably sliced away forever.

Luna still remembered finding Lily crawling over to their brother's door, softly asking for her big brother, saying , "Linky" over and over.

Lily had grown so accustomed to spending time with her big brother.

It tore Lori apart when she had to pick her up and, as delicately as possible, explain that Linky couldn't play with them anymore.

At first it seemed Lily could get distracted by the efforts of the remaining loud sisters and misdirect her, but on one particular time, Lily...must have gotten this feeling when she saw through Lori's facade.

Something had happened to her older brother, and the way it felt, the most minor amount of trembling from Lori's voice, hit Lily so hard in her heart, making the youngest loud tear up loudly and painfully. Lily's youthful ignorance, even if she could partly understand the feeling, shielded her from the true tragedy of the event that robbed the family of the middle two children. The only thing she could truely understand was that Lincoln wasn't around anymore, to play with, to cuddle with.

No more big brother.

Then it really began.

The fights.

The fights began in full force. Unfiltered, unmitigated screaming heard through the vents all over the house, emanating from the parent's bedroom, at all hours of the night.

Luna had found herself consoling the twins quite often when they'd catch wind of the fights their parents had gone through, While Lori had often held Lily and Lisa in her arms to console them as the two raged. Leni however was one of the hardest to console, unable to bear the conflict arising from the people she loved most.

The fighting happened so much, so frequently. Every Loud heard and was caught in the middle of the air of frictional turmoil and hatred at some point, until finally, the day hit.

One last devastating blow.

He left.

One day they all came home from school, Dad was gone.

Lynn Sr. had packed his bags and left, leaving the Loud family short their patriarch, Rita without a husband...the remaining children without their father.

Luna sighed depressingly from the recall of the memories; they always stung. They always sheared at her usual jibe mentality, hurt of unbelievable magnitude. Of the two Loud parents, she was always closest to her father.

An ultimate betrayal, a father leaving his children. In the hardest of times, this really tested the metal of a parental figure.

"Fucking arsehole...fucking coward, walking off like that on mom, on us...what a blimey cuck," Luna thought bitterly, memories of her dad cutting deep like a razor to flesh.

There really was no short-term recovery from the trauma as of late, but Luna had finally been finding some stimulus in moving on…she was ready to leave Royal Woods for good and make it into the world. She would still be with the family and visit in her mind, but she had to try and put the ordeals of home life behind and try and live, not only for herself, but try and improve her family's life by her struggles.

It was admittedly a partly-selfish thing to do, change her environment from home, but in a way, to her at least, try and get opportunities that would in the long run help her family financially, if only she could get into a university and make it big.

Her family would be set for life from her still present love of music and Rock N Roll.

But her aspirations fell flat, at least that's what it seemed like so often lately.

It behoved and enraged her, but as bitter as this pill was, she had to accept and swallow it; she could only, for the moment, live in the now, the present.

Luna forced a grin as she looked at the sun's rays beginning to cut through the morning fog. Looking across the water of the river towards the sunrise she mumbled, "Well...in the words of Steve Walsh... _carry on my wayward son_."

With that, Luna began humming the tune by Kansas, before tossing the crumpled rejection letter off the bridge into the murky black freezing waters below.

As she began walking towards home, her mind gravitated back to that one-day, years ago, where she had decided to embrace who she was a few weeks after her first concert.

"The little dudes helped me a lot without realising it," she thought, smiling back to some of those memories she had of the two missing Louds.

Again and again over the years, even three years later they were still with her in her heart…that free and energetic spirit, whether a comic and anime lover, or lover of sports, they put 110% into every day of their lives...she could feel it.

And that's what Luna wanted to strive for now, even when the world felt like it was purposely working against her.

For the first time in about a week, she felt a wave of inspiration, that inner desire to put her soul into her music. If she got it down in the mode now, she'd be able to jam with Sam before the movie ...and the eventual cuddle time.

An hour later.

She smiled as she opened the door to the loud family home.

"Oi Luvs! I'm home!" she called out through the house, a varied response ringing back from the eight other kids in the house, the most notable one coming from a little girl who came charging down the stairs and grabbed Luna by the leg in a hug, looking up at her with a smile she beamed positivity, her hair just Leni's, only cuter and a bit messier in a curled, pony-tail bundle.

"Hi Lu!" she giggled, as Luna playfully tried to shake her off her leg before picking her up.

"Morning Lil, how's my little flower doing this morning?"

"Good…wait, I mean great," Lily smiled and said proudly.

"I did my own shoelaces this morning Lu! See?" Lily said, showing Luna her tiny shoes as she beamed. Luna grinned and ruffled her hair "Did you really? Good on you little dudette."

Lily smiled, before a tinge of red flustered her cheeks, and she got a little embarrassed.

"Well... I...I had little help from Lisa," Lily confessed up innocently, trying to hide her tiny sheepish expression.

Luna's heart all but melted at the sight.

"Ah, don't worry little dudette. Lisa's a smart little science gal. It's cool you got a little help. We all need help at some point," Luna said endearingly. Under the surface though, Luna did mean all the subtleties and innuendo that last line she uttered.

 _We all need help at some point._

Lily seemed to be that help for some reason. She had been too young to remember Lincoln and Lynn really well, and as she had grown, she hadn't needed to deal with the same emotional turmoil everyone had gone through.

In a lot of ways, Lily became a beacon of hope in everyone's life. The least phased by the horrors and disaster to plague them all, as though she was still sacred ground, to be kept protected at all costs. Not even Lynn Sr's departure broke her down. She had this indomitable, infectious positivity and radiance that was utterly serene and soothing. ' _Like the first flower of spring'_ Lucy had put it once, the nickname had stuck, " _the little flower_ ," and Lily had remained their little flower for the past three years, the last vestige of hope, purity and sanctity the remaining Loud family knew before everything went belly-up.

"Either way, you're halfway there little dudette," Luna smiled as she put her down, "Soon you'll be running around in a pair of blue suede shoes you tied yourself. Now, do me a fav little sis, get yourself some breakfast before preschool okay?"

Lily nodded, gave a quick, gripping hug to Luna, then ran to the kitchen.

Luna smiled seeing the little light-blonde move at lightning speed, before she herself walked into the living room, finding Lucy sitting on the edge of the couch watching the news seemingly wrapped in her black hoodie, her eyes seemingly glued to the screen from behind her dark bangs.

"So what's happening Luce?" Luna asked as she wrapped her arms around her little sister from behind, Lucy didn't budge but responded in her characteristic monotone, "...wonderful things."

Luna looked at the screen and listened as the story unfolded, the overly cheery tone of the newscaster a direct contrast to the story:

" _As of this moment, the number of escaped inmates is estimated to be in the dozens. Presently we suggest local residents go about their daily lives but to be on high alert for suspicious individuals. Contact local authorities if any suspicious activity is occurring in the Royal Woods or greater Detroit Metropolitian area. Authorities are on high alert, so calm, vigilance and care is greater recommended. In other news, President Donald Trump has officially announced he will be seeking re-election for the 2020 bid. President Trump's challengers, Democrat candidate Kamala Harris, Libertarian candidate Nicholas Sarwark and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, are slated to face off in debate against the President in the coming eight months, assuming the Libertarian and Green Party candidates pass the fifteen percent margin required for debate entry. Polling seems to be indicating, surprisingly, that the underdog candidates Nicholas Sarwack and Jill Stein may be in the running for this year's debate scheduling, and, possibly in the eye of the populace, given President Trump's unfavourable performance ratings and charges on challenger Kamala Harris' corporate ties and donations, and most recently her disparaging of the populist-left progressive wing of the democratic party. It's still a long way till the debates, but as of now, for the first time since the 1990's, there may be more than two candidates, the incumbent and challenger, at the podium for the race of President of the United States. President Trump himself has stated he believes he will win again in 2020 by a landsli_ -"

The TV went dead as Lucy dropped the remote with a characteristic sigh.

"Yikes, convicts in Detroit and convicts in Washington, eh Lucy?" Luna joked as she let go of her sister.

Lucy nodded, her expression unchanging, as she headed back upstairs.

Luna sighed…

Lucy had been hit hardest in many ways by the incident three years ago, losing not just two siblings but her two best friends.

Months after the funeral, while setting the table Lucy had unconsciously put out an extra plate on Lynn's spot.

Lola had chided her for forgetting, rather harshly and unnecessarily, to which all the emotions Lucy typically bottled up and let die, erupted titanically. She threw the plate against the wall in a rage no one in the family had ever see come from the little Goth before.

Lucy roared out at Lola and the family, insisting that Lynn was alive. No one else could feel it, but Lucy could feel it; Lynn was alive. Before long, Lucy fell to her knees in tears. Luna had to remain strong, even when she felt the same hopes, only lacking Lucy's rigid, almost religious adherence to the notion Lynn was still alive

It was so hard to believe Lynn was gone, all that exuberant, uninhibited and wily emotion and passion snuffed out so easily.

Not a day went by that Lucy didn't think of her as well. This kindred sense of loss Luna felt they had grown the two closer, Lucy sometimes hanging with Luna in her room helping each other with poetry and lyrics, respectively.

Luna shook herself out of it.

"Bloody hell, memories are just flowing easily today," she grumbled, before grabbing her car keys, calling up the stairs "Anyone who needs a lift get ready, we're leaving in ten minutes!"

Luna's resolution was absolute; today was gonna be a good day, no matter if she had a say in the matter.


	3. Chapter 2 - Like Drowning

American playwright Edna Ferber once described death by drowning as "a really delightful sensation after you cease to struggle," however Lynn honestly had never heard this quote, nor of Ms. Ferber, and more importantly had no intention of succumbing to something as simple as oxygen deprivation after coming so far as she struggled for air, her arm clawing at the water pulling herself up for air against the raging current, struggling as the light of the sun above her taunted her. Up there was air, but as the oxygen in her lungs began to wane and her peripherals darken she knew she probably had seconds to escape, her mind making a mental countdown as she flailed upwards.

'3…'

The seconds seemed to pass by like hours.

She thought back to that day, three years ago.

Everything had seemed so normal back then. In fact, the day had been a perfectly normal day, their dad had taken them up to Belle Isle Park, just off from Detroit by the Canadian border for a weekend, and despite the cool early March weather, not quite spring but still not quite winter, it was going to be a fun camping trip. They had made camp near the William Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse.

She remembered vividly everyone's moods and activities; Lori's annoyance at a lack of a phone signal, even being so close to the city, Leni nursing her hands after deciding to unwittingly make a dress from poison ivy, Luan spending the afternoon trying to make Lucy laugh after a little bet with Luna before they had left, Lola's distain at the realisation they would in fact notbe going to Disneyland but camping had left her in a sour mood however, Lana's reaction, to be expected, was the polar opposite to her twin's and had already gone off in search of squirrels to befriend, knowing her she had probably brought home half a family of them after the trip, Lily sleeping in their mother's arms while Lisa fiddled with a laptop she had smuggled along with her on the trip hiding in the shade behind Vanzilla.

Then there was the little extra something; herself and Luna. Both had drawn the short straws and had to put up the tents together.

"Sooooooo... little dudette," Lynn heard, looking up at Luna expectantly as she knocked in the tent pegs into the lightly frost covered ground, "How is that thing with that guy you like Francisco working out?"

Lynn stopped hammering and sighed, before a momentary instance of frustration drove her into giving the tent peg a final thrash into the ground, embedding it so firmly into the earth it would be a miracle if they ever got it back out.

"Well, as well as it can…I guess," she said, having sighed heavily, with an expression that could have made Lucy look downright cheerful, looking her rocker elder sister in the eyes, "Francisco, well…he's… he's already dating someone else... damn it! My confession went about as well as the Cleveland Brown's facing hoard of literal charging bulls."

Luna stopped straightening the tentpole in her hands before she sat down next to her sister in the shadow of the half-formed tent.

"Sorry little Dude" she said, wrapping an arm around her sister comfortingly, "If ya wanna talk about it I'm here…"

Lynn remembered the gesture well. Luna was always there for her siblings, but over the past few months she had been getting closer with her in particular after she had broken her arm a few months prior and had been going through some depression about being unable to continue her sports passions all semester.

"No…well, yeah…I guess…he's…well he's dating Vic Tompson from my year…" Lynn mumbled defiantly, slumping into her legs, this little defensive posture common for her, though it wasn't an often-seen posture. It was akin to her reaction when she lost; and she didn't like losing. She hated this feeling, she'd never had a chance to begin with anyway.

Luna pulled her into a side hug, "It's always some Vic asshole."

"Huh? What do ya mean Luna?"

"I...sorta had a crush on someone back in middle school; lost him to some asshole named Vic too back then, I think short for Victoria or something preppy like that. So, I get ya. Sorry Lynndog. As Nat King Cole said, " _Only those who`ve lost at love, would know how a heart can cry_ ," So...if ya need to unleash the Lynnsanity, let it out sis. But I do gotta ask... is this Vic girl a-?"

Lynn cut her off

"Oh, if it were that easy," she laughed, more at her own feelings of inadequacy bubbling inside than anything else, "He was kinda was out of my ballpark to begin with. I mean, just because he usually batted for the other team literally didn't mean I thought he batted for…Vic is short for Victor."

A look of understanding came over Luna's face as she sat there behind the half-finished tent

"When did you find out?" Luna asked Lynn. Lynn sighed at the question. It seemed she picked up the bad habit of her bunkmate when in these states.

"Last Friday, I...I sorta went to confess to him…we sat there after practice with some subs, but then half-way through along came Victor. Francisco introduced him to me as his boyfriend, just...Jesus Christ...before they kissed," Lynn choked, tears welling in her eyes as she punched the ground.

"I WAS SECONDS AWAY FROM LOOKING LIKE A FUCKING IDIOT LUNA! SECONDS! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!" the nervous laughter from before was replaced by nervous rage as she teared up.

Luna handed her water bottle to Lynn as Lynn looked to see if anyone had noticed her momentary lapse and break down. The last thing she needed was the entirety of the Loud Family on her case with this.

"Sis," Luna said softly, "it's okay. I've had some issues on my end as well," Luna confessed, Lynn looked at her elder sister with sympathy.

"D-did Sam not share your feelings either?" Lynn asked, trying to fight back her tears with her sleeve, another battle she was failing.

"She doesn't know yet," Luna sighed, "I just, I wanna tell her how I feel y'know? How is it I can perform in front of hundreds of people, but can't tell the girl I like that maybe I want to be more than friends?"

Luna clearly wanted to remain strong for her sister, but Lynn could see it in her eyes; Luna felt herself beginning to droop into that same despair.

Then out of nowhere, something happened.

It took less than a second, something... a sudden jolting surprise to Luna, catching her completely off guard. It was enough to bring her swelling malaise to a violent halt.

Lynn grinned as she pulled her face back giving her big sis a quick peck on the cheek.

"Now, just imagine that was Sam," Lynn grinned cheekily, the tears still flowing down her face but now accenting a smile of sisterly adoration, "Seriously Lu, I've missed my chance, but you might as well give it a go, right? Stop playing defender and go on the offensive. Worst she can say is no, right? Ain't the rocker lifestyle about taking the leap?"

Luna grinned and ruffled her sister's hair, "You're right…you're absolutely bloody right Lynn... Y'know that upbeat spirit of yours is radically contagious little dudette. Glad to see those gnarly flickers of it returning."

Lynn's mood soaring back seemed to make Luna feel even better, like on parallel tract, but even brighter and more meaningful. It was exhilarating how Lynn's emotions infected her.

"Yo Lynn? I just wanna say...damn...God only knows who I'd be without you little sis," Luna cooed, hugging her sister before taking the hammer from Lynn.

"Hey, I'll take care of putting up the tents if you want Lynn. I need some time to figure out what to say to Sam anyway after that pep talk. But don't worry Lynn," Luna said reassuringly to Lynn, giving her a comforting pad on her shoulder.

"Things are gonna work out, ya just gotta rock that faith a bit. Think about it this way; you're as free as a bird now."

Lynn made a huge giggly smiled as she handed back the water bottle.

"Yeah...ya know, a run would do me some good anyway…hell! Maybe I'll find Dad and Lincoln! Seriously though, why did they drag us all the way out here for father-son bonding if we just wait back at camp? That's some ol' bullshit."

Luna and Lynn had a quick laugh, as Lynn began to get ready to run the familiar familial kin words, "I love you Lynn Loud," briefly, coasting her ears, and Lynn knew she loved Luna too.

The memory began to fade as panic once again began to set in, the light was still far away and the surface didn't seem to be getting closer, she needed to breathe she needed to breathe now…Luna's warmth in that memory seemed to radiate through her body now, she needed to see her again, that beacon of happiness who was always at their backs through thick and thin…she needed to tell her she was okay she…

"2"

She needed to breathe…she needed help…she needed to save herself before she ended up like…

"Lincoln!" She shook the body in her arms, his orange shirt slowly turning the hue of a dark red as the figure stood ominously over the two of them. "Come on! FUCK! FUCKING HELL! Come on! Little brother, stay with me! DON'T YOU LOSE NOW!" angry red tears flowed down her face as she pressed her hands against his gut trying in vain to stop the bleeding.

"You can't save him Lynn," the figure said, the sudden change in weather darkening their silhouettes as Lynn's tears began disappearing into the rain "Just leave him and go"

Lynn glared angrily at the figure, that horrid face obscured by the effects of time in her mind regardless of her efforts to sear it into her brain for all this time. "Y-yes I can! I can't fail him! H-He's my brother! Don't you get that? How could you? After what you did! Fuck you! Call a doctor Damn it!"

The figure shook their head slowly "Can't you understand why this needed to be done? If you would just listen to m-" Lynn spat at the bastard, the warm saliva colliding with their hiking boot "I see…In that case I'll just have to drag you off of-" A bolt of lightning from the storming sky smashed behind her, the sound of ringing filled her ears as the ground gave way beneath her, she quickly tried to grab for the edge as the ground fell beneath her, but then she realised…LINCOLN! She flung out her right arm and grabbed his limp body by his leg, her left scraping against the top of the ledge for leverage.

"Let him go" the figure ordered

"Fuck you! He's my brother!" She screamed defiantly

"Lynn I'm ordering you to let him go!"

She glared up at the figure her arm beginning to slip, the sparse light illuminating those eyes, those cold eyes that had once held such love for them both "P-Please…"

The figure sighed as a long dark metallic object came into view, the cold feeling of steel pressing against her wet flesh pressed down at the elbow of her arm.

"I'm going to count down from three, if you don't let go you're going to be punished…3…2…"

"DAMN YOU!" She screamed from the bottom of her soul

"1"

Lynn felt herself sinking, just like then, what was the difference between sinking and falling anyway? She wondered, what had kept her going in those moments? As gravity had taken it's course and the realisation as time seemed to slow that your brother's limp body was falling alongside yours and as you reach out your arm to him…oh right, she was falling again, she needed saving, she couldn't do it alone…she needed…she needed…

"Luna" the word escaped her mouth coming out silently as bubbles in the dim submerged light of lake Michigan, the last of the breath in her lungs leaving her mouth, salty tears instantly mixing with the murky polluted water around her as blackness closed in.

"Save me Big Sis"


End file.
